Ambushed
by OnePirateWolf96
Summary: Elma's team take on a simple mission in Oblivia. Only it turns out to not be so simple, especially when there's ganglion involved.


**Hey, here's the prequel to Another injury, where we follow the team on a mission to save some BLADE who got lost in Oblivia.**

 **Also, Kiba is what my Cross is called, just so you know.**

 **Please tell me what you think!**

Ambushed

"Come on guys, wake up!" Elma and Tatsu were the ones waking up Kiba and Lin early in the morning.

"Whassit?" Kiba mumbled, still half asleep, contemplating whether or not he should just go back to sleep. Lin didn't seem to be doing much better, although she had decided to pull the covers over her ears and turn her back to everything.

"Some newbie BLADEs managed to get lost in Oblivia and we've gotten the job to rescue them before they get into real trouble." Elma sounded way too energetic for this early in the morning. Meanwhile, Tatsu was trying to wake Lin by jumping on her.

"Team Tatsu must go rescue weak little BLADEs before monsters eat them!" Tatsu all but yelled in Lin's ear. "Team Tatsu must be heroes!"

By the time Lin got out of bed and prepared to leave, Lin had just thrown Tatsu off her and tried to get back to sleep, all while grumbling about it being too early for this and couldn't the BLADEs get lost in Oblivia during the day and not in the middle of the night.

"Fiiine," Lin groaned, rolling out of the bed, nearly squishing Tatsu in the process. "Let me get some tea first," she mumbled, stumbling toward the kitchen, still half asleep.

"All right, let's take fifteen minutes to have some tea, and let Lin wake up properly." Elma decided, knowing Lin wouldn't go anywhere without her morning tea. Kiba didn't seem to be in much of a hurry, either.

Tea was soon ready and all three plus Tatsu were sitting around, sipping from their cups. Tatsu didn't drink tea, but he was munching on some cookies he found somewhere. A few minutes later, the door swished open.

"Good morning, everyone," Nagi greeted them as he stepped in.

"Hello," Kiba briefly greeted him with a nod, turning back to his tea.

"Good morning, mister secretary," Elma greeted him, seemingly not the slightest bit surprised the man showed up at their place so early in the morning. "You're just in time."

"Uh… What is he in time for?" Lin asked quietly, before turning her attention to Nagi. "Mornin' Nagi. You want some tea?" she asked with a bright smile.

"Tea would be nice, thank you," he nodded to Lin, before turning to Elma and Kiba. "Thank you for informing me of the mission you got. I would indeed be glad to go on a mission for a change. I don't even have that much paperwork left right now."

"Uh… What's going on here?" Lin asked again, handing Nagi a cup of tea. He nodded at her in thanks before looking at Elma, clearly expecting her to explain.

"I know the secretary has been spending a lot of time with paperwork recently, so when I got this mission, I called him to ask if he wanted to take a break from it and join us." Elma explained simply.

"Sounds good," Kiba commented calmly from where he had just finished his tea. He was looking at his comm, no doubt checking the details for the mission. "Seems like the BLADEs who got lost are pretty close to a Ganglion base, so help will be good, in case something happens."

"Yeah, we'll beat up any Ganglion who tries to mess with us!" Lin was getting enthusiastic, chugging the rest of her tea in one go, bouncing off to get ready to leave.

"Team Tatsu save poor, weak BLADE friends and bash bad ganglion!" Tatsu joined Lin's enthusiasm, and started dancing and hopping around.

"By the way," Elma caught Nagi's attention again "did you tell the commander you're going on a mission with us, like you promised?" she asked, just to make sure they didn't get an angry commander on them, for stealing the secretary without warning.

"I did," Nagi promised immediately, though he seems somewhat amused.

"And what's so amusing?" Lin asked, bursting back into the room in full gear. "Did he argue with you again?"

"No," Nagi answered, sipping his tea, managing to somehow seem neutrally calm and smug at the same time. "He was still asleep when I left, and much too tired to argue."

"That's sneaky," Elma chuckled. "You know he can't focus on anything this early in the morning."

"He probably will have something to say about that when we get back," Kiba chimed in, rather impressed by how easily Nagi handled the gruff commander.

"Yeah, I would be annoyed too, if someone told me something important when I'm trying to sleep," Lin added.

"Let's just get on with the mission, shall we?" Nagi was quick to change the subject. Drowning the last of his tea in one gulp, he turned to the team. "Are we ready to leave now?"

"I guess so," Lin replied, looking around to make sure everyone really was ready.

"Team Tatsu go now!" Tatsu yelled, rushing toward the door without looking back to see if the others were following.

"We better make sure he doesn't get in trouble," Elma told the others as they were leaving.

"Or lost," Kiba added. "He doesn't know where we're going, does he? Asides from Oblivia."

"No, he doesn't," Lin confirmed. "He'll come back soon when he remembers that." Indeed, after a few minutes of walking through NLA, Tatsu came back to them, looking rather embarrassed.

"Tatsu forget Tatsu no know where weak BLADE friends are in Oblivia," he babbled, waddling beside Lin as they continued forward.

After some wandering and hiking and climbing, the group had gotten close to where the BLADEs had sent the message for help from. Fairly close to a ganglion stronghold, they had to be careful to not run into or get discovered by any patrolling solders.

"Are we close?" Lin asked, hauling Tatsu up another cliff he couldn't climb on his own. "They should be somewhere around here, right?"

"Yes, we are almost where we got the message for help from," Nagi confirmed, peering over some cliffs a bit further ahead. "We should find them there, unless they have been forced to move to avoid being found by the ganglion."

"Let's hope they're there," Elma said, also keeping lookout for danger. "The longer we stay here, the bigger risk we're discovered by the ganglion."

"Team Tatsu bash mean ganglion!" Tatsu declared proudly. "Tatsu's friends strong!"

"Even if we can take on the ganglion, it's better to not attract their attention right next to one of their strongholds," Elma explained patiently to the nopon.

"I think I see the BLADEs over there," Kiba, who had went off on his own for a bit, informed them, pointing toward some rocks and cliffs on the other side off a small canyon.

"Where, I can't see anything?" Lin tried to see what Kiba was pointing at, but couldn't see anything but rocks and sand and the canyon.

"Over there, behind those rocks," Nagi had also spotted them. The small group was hiding behind some big rocks, and thankfully they seemed unharmed. "Good job, Kiba."

"At least they seem to be alright," Elma also noticed them now. "Let's go get them and head back to NLA."

"Then have dinner for job well done!" Tatsu was already on his way to where the small group of BLADE were hiding. The others followed him.

They had to cross the small canyon, which proved to not be very difficult after all. Tatsu just needed a bit help climbing up on the other side. One of the BLADE next to the rocks now noticed them and nudged his friends before pointing out the team.

"Hey there," greeted the man who seemed to be acting as the leader of the group. "I'm Carlos, and these," he gestured to the three people with him, one young man and two young women, "are my team." He scratched the back of his neck while talking, apparently somewhat embarrassed about the whole thing. "I'm sure glad you guys showed up so soon. I'm not sure how long we could've stayed here before the ganglion found us."

"Hello," Elma replied, speaking for her team. "I'm Elma, and this is my team. Is everyone alright?" They seemed unharmed, but it was always good to ask, just in case.

"Yeah, we're all good," the young man informed them.

"But I thought those ganglion would have noticed us for sure," one of the women, with red hair and some light, grey clothes, added, looking quite relieved they had been found by Elma's team.

"There were ganglion around here?" Nagi questioned, looking very alert, as though he expected some of them to suddenly materialize.

"Yeah, about a dozen, somewhere over there," Carlos pointed somewhere to his left, beyond the rocks they were hiding behind.

"We were keeping watch," the young man continued, "and we saw them over there." He shuddered, still somewhat frightened by the sight. "A couple of them looked over here, and we were sure they had seen us, but then they just continued," he finished.

"We must have been so lucky," the other woman, with short black hair and some ma-non made gear, added thoughtfully. "Because they would have seen us normally, but the wind had kicked up some sand, so they probably had trouble seeing because of that."

"Well, anyway, we'd better leave before they come back," Elma declared, already ready to go on. "We don't want to have to fight any more than we must, especially this close to their base."

"Yeah, let's go home," Lin was also ready to go back, not wanting to spend any more time here of all places. Kiba and Nagi nodded in agreement, and both teams were soon ready to go.

Suddenly, Kiba heard a strange noise, like metal scraping against rock. It took him a split second to notice where the sound came from.

"Look out!" he yelled, just before a large ganglion attacked from above with a large blade in hand. He just managed to pull out his dual blades and block it, before pushing it back. A brief look around made it clear they were surrounded by about a dozen ganglion soldiers.

"They did notice you," Elma informed Carlos and his team as they took formation to fight the ganglion and protect the inexperienced BLADEs and Tatsu, who was practically panicking at the moment. "They must've known you sent for help, so they set up an ambush to get all of us!"

"Then we'll just have to show them what we're made of!" Lin declared, managing to almost sound completely unafraid. "Let's kick some ganglion butt!"

"Dispose of these and get away before reinforcements show up," Nagi corrected her slightly, already in a fighting stance, ready with his katana.

"Got it!" Kiba, Elma and Lin replied together, before the fight really started. It was going about as well as expected, considering they were outnumbered three to one and they had to protect the other group and Tatsu.

Kiba had no time to look at how the others were doing, as he just barely manged to block a hit with one blade, while slicing at another enemy with the other one, only to be forced to roll to the side when a third ganglion appeared from nowhere with a large, sharp rock in its hand. As he moved, he sliced up with one of his blades, cutting it open from the side to the throat. 'At least that's one less,' he thought as he was half-covered in nasty, gooey ganglion blood, before taking on the remaining two.

Elma and Lin were taking down six of the ganglion together, with Lin drawing their attention with some shots, and then easily blocking their attacks while Elma came at them with blades and guns. The ganglion soon saw through their teamwork, however, and forced them apart by getting in between them.

Elma had to suddenly jump to the side to avoid a blade to the face, and instead got kicked against a rock by another enemy, knocking the air out of her lungs. As she was gasping for breath, the ganglion took it's chance to attack, and she barely had enough time to pull out a gun and shoot it point blank, it's blade just barely an inch from her throat. 'One down, few more to go', she thought.

Lin's opponents were hacking at her shield so rapidly, she wasn't getting a chance to attack. She briefly marvelled at the shield's durability, before snapping back into action. Instead of just guarding herself with the shield, she pushed back at the enemies with it, making them briefly stumble, giving her the perfect opportunity to strike back properly. Putting all her weight behind her, she charged into the nearest opponent, which apparently was enough, as she could hear its ribs breaking under the force of her attack. She took a second to locate Elma, and another to regroup with her, both knowing working together was definitely better than working apart.

Nagi was duelling the biggest of the attackers, presumably the leader of the bunch. It was strong and surprisingly more agile than it looked. The two others coming at him from the sides weren't helping much either. He managed to dodge an attack from the side, parry one from the big one, before taking a step back to swipe at the one to the other side. He hit it in the arm, making it drop its heavy weapon. Next he went at the big one, intending to take it out first, since it obviously was the biggest threat. He feinted an attack on its right, sidestepped and dodged its counterattack, and took a swing at its unguarded left side, managing to cut deep into its side. He noticed from the corner of his eye one of the others was coming at him from the side, so he quickly turned around, stabbing the katana into its head in the same motion, and killing it instantly.

Suddenly he noticed the one he injured earlier was taking advantage of his distraction and was closing in on Carlos and his group. They were new recruits, scientists, and therefore practically incapable of fighting. He reacted in a second, getting in between the young BLADEs and the ganglion soldier, barely in time to block the attack aimed at his chest. It took him a second to gain enough momentum to push it away, noticing far too late he left his back wide open, a chance the big one wasn't missing. Although injured, it was far from defeated, and was now coming at him, massive blade already in the air, aiming for his left side. He tried to move to the right, to avoid the blow, but was just a little too late, the blade making impact with the side of his head, making him hit the rocks and drop to the ground. The last thing he heard was the ganglions roar, someone screeching in terror, and Kiba's voice shouting his name before darkness embraced him and he passed out.

Kiba had just finished up with his three opponents, and finally had time to take a look at how the others were doing. The next thing he noticed was a large ganglion slamming its huge sword into the side of Nagi's head with a sickening 'crunch', Nagi hitting the rocks, and dropping to the ground, unmoving and out cold ('not dead', he told himself firmly, 'just out cold').He heard Tatsu and the girls on Carlos's team screech in terror at the sight, and his own voice, calling out Nagi's name.

He reacted before he himself knew what he was doing, cutting down ganglion with the injured arm in a second, before moving on to the big one, barely in time to raise both his swords to block its attack. Its strength nearly had him down on his knees, but he forced himself to stay up, and pushed back against it, making the ganglion loose its balance giving him the opportunity to strike its already wounded left side. It flinched back, giving him the perfect chance to finish it off, which he didn't hesitate to take. As soon as he noticed the other ganglion were also dead, his attention went back to the injured Nagi.

By now Elma and Lin had reached him as well, and were looking over his injuries. Nagi still hadn't woken up.

"How's he?" Kiba asked as soon as he reached them.

"Don't worry, it's not as bad as it seems," Lin reassured him, before going back to checking Nagi's head.

"Every mim has a weak spot in a very specific place on the side of their head," Elma explained, when Kiba looked like he still wanted some kind of explanation. "If it's hit in that very specific place with much force, it will react something like it would on a real human body."

"In other words, he has a concussion," Lin added, standing up. "It can be kinda painful, and he's gonna need some time to recover, but it's not too dangerous, especially since he's already starting to wake up." Indeed, Nagi was already starting to gain consciousness, but not overly much. Just some twitching n his limbs and a small pained groan.

"We'll need to get back to NLA, before something happens, though," Elma added, looking around in case there were more ganglion nearby. "If we get attacked again, it would be more difficult to defend ourselves."

That was true, and soon both teams were almost ready to leave. Elma had Kiba comm Vandham and tell him what happened, since it was pretty much something he would need to know. Since Nagi hadn't recovered from his injury even a little bit since kind of waking up, Elma and Kiba had to pull him up between the two of them, half dragging, half carrying the secretary along. Nagi tried to protest several times, telling them he could walk on his own, but every time they let go of him, he just fell to the ground immediately without the support. After the fifth time he stopped trying and resigned to needing their help. Now they were all heading back to NLA.

 **A/N: I've never written a fight scene before, so that was kind of interesting. A bit short, but maybe not half-bad. Or what do you guys think?**

 **I also gave Kiba a bigger roll. Hooray for Kiba!**

 **I'm also pretty sure mims don't work like that, so I kinda made up something so Nagi could have his concussion. (Wow, that sounds…. kinda mean… poor Nagi!)**

 **I also seem to have mixed up things a bit compared to the game, since they're past chapter five (I think, because they know about mims), but they have no skells and Nagi is apparently available as a party member, even though that's not until after chapter eight in the game (I think it's chapter eight… Is it chapter eight?)**

 **I also don't know if there even is a Carlos in XCX, but if there isn't we can pretend there is, and if there is, they may or may not be the same person, depending. I know there's a Carlos in the original XC, but I don't know about this one.**


End file.
